New Challenge: Epic 80s
This month's challenge features hundreds of fresh prompts from the bodacious decade of the 1980s.
SWG News
Cultus Dispatches: Communities Do Comment
Comment data from the SWG underscores community as an essential component to a robust commenting culture.
Instadrabbling Sessions for July, August, and September
Instadrabbling continues on the first Saturday of each month on our Discord server.
New Challenge: Scavenger Hunt
In this Matryoshka-with-a-twist, you will solve clues that point you to the challenge prompts.
New & Updated Fanworks
[Writing] Eä's Redemption by AaronAzrael
This is my new poetical attempt to add my own interpretation to Tolkien's Cosmology as to Eru's Creation and the Valar's minds and behind-the-scene providence reasons and mechanisms.. I often review Eä as part of our own world, just in another dimension, this is why I have always seriously…
[Writing] Wrensong and Roses by Isilme_among_the_stars
Concerned by his responses to the paraphernalia of healing, Fingon steals Maedhros from his room for an impromptu garden excursion. Maedhros battles with dark thoughts.
[Writing] The Mirror Crack'd by AdmirableMonster
Rescued from a brutal Angband hunt, an ex-thrall with a strange and powerful artifact embedded in his spine is brought to Himring, for it is one of the only places in Beleriand which welcomes such folk. Though he has no memories of his life before, Anniavas slowly becomes accustomed to his new…
[Writing] Bon(e)fire by Fuin
On the night before the battle, Caranthir and his ally share thoughts about their peoples' traditions:
Burning bones ward off evil.
[Writing] From That Rubble by StarSpray
Fëanor shrugged, studying the contents of his wine glass. “Something must be done about that house. It will fall down eventually.”
“It does not follow that it must be you that tears it down single-handedly. Are you sure you do not want help?”
“It’s not as though I…
[Writing] Until the Stars are All Alight by Dagstjarna
Reembodied in Aman, Celebrimbor decides to return to Middle earth to help heal the darkness and hurt wrought by the ring.
Current Challenge
Epic 80s
Create a fanwork using on of our righteous prompts based on popular culture from the 1980s. Read more ...
Random Challenge
Caprice and Chance
Prompts for this Matryoshka challenge are loosely based on the plot arcs and tropes of romance novels. Read more ...
New in References
Communities Do Comment: Expanding the 3C's of Commenting with SWG Data by Dawn Walls-Thumma
Expanding on my 2018 article "Why People Don't Comment," comment data from the SWG underscores community as an essential component to a robust commenting culture.
Fandom Draws the Line: Fanworks, AI, and Resistance by Dawn Felagund, Grundy
By definition, fanworks fandom does not draw a lot of boundaries, but community archives and events have taken a strong stance against AI-generated fanworks due to ethical considerations and member input.
Grief, Grieving, and Permission to Mourn in the "Quenta Silmarillion" by Dawn Walls-Thumma
In a book as full of death as the Quenta Silmarillion, grief and mourning are surprisingly absent. The characters who receive grief and mourning—and those who don't—appear to do so due to narrative bias. Grief and mourning (or a lack of them) serve to draw attention toward and away from objectionable actions committed by characters.
Featured Themed Collection
Beyond the Silmarillion
[Writing] Down the Long Years by Isilme_among_the_stars
Bilbo, the strange old hobbit with the wandering feet, senses something special in young Frodo the first time he sees the lad; as they become close, they find in each other a cameraderie not well understood by other hobbits. Five poignant moments between Bilbo and Frodo Baggins over the course…
[Artwork] The Mirror of Galadriel by skywardstruck
Smoke rises from the Mirror, where the Lady of Lothlórien awaits to share its visions.
[Writing] Bar-en-Eladar by Gabriel
Out of the shadow, light is born anew.
A Chieftain is dead. And whilst the events surrounding his death are unclear, a son tries to come to terms with his loss.
Around the World and Web
Tolkien Disability Pride 2026
This Tumblr event focuses on ALL creative works focusing on disability in Tolkien's universe.
Tolkien Native Language Appreciation Fest 2026
A Tumblr event to celebrate the linguistic diversity of the Tolkien fandom.
Scribbles and Drabbles 2026
Scribbles & Drabbles is a fic and art exchange with a minimum word count of 100 words.
Russingon Week 2026
A Tumblr week event focusing on the relationship between Maedhros and Fingon.
Boromir Week 2026
If you are Boromir girlies/gents/stans/simps, then this event is for you! So, come join us, and bring your fanfiction, art, gifs, moodboards, and headcanons that highlight everything you love about our Captain of Gondor!
SWG News
New Challenge: Epic 80s
Posted by SWG Moderators on . Last updated on .
Whoa! It's our annual decades challenge and we're vegging out in the most tubular, bad to the bone decade for a month of rad fanworks. So spray up your hair, don your denim jacket, and tie on your skates to hang ten back to the 1980s!
For the Epic 80s challenge, you will choose from hella 80s-themed prompts to create a fanwork. Your fanwork totally does not have to take place in the 1980s. You can use these prompts however you want! It's most definitely legit to keep it chill with just a title from a prompt, or you can book it in a more bodacious way by using lines, lyrics, album covers, movie posters, plot points—like whatever floats your boat! Of course, crossovers are the bomb if that's how you want to step off. We encourage gnarly interpretations and use of prompts, including mad loopholing!
Thank you to Aneréa for this month's banner and stamps!
You can catch the Epic 80s prompts here.
In order to receive a stamp for your fanwork, your response must be posted to the archive on or before 15 July 2026. For complete challenge guidelines, see the Challenges page on our website.
Cultus Dispatches: Communities Do Comment
Posted by SWG Moderators on . Last updated on .
More than a year ago, our fan studies column Cultus Dispatches embarked on a study of commenting behavior using Tolkien Fanfiction Survey data, plus data from sites like Archive of Our Own and FanFiction.net. At long last, we have the comment data from the SWG to add to the conversation!
Since the advent of websites with commenting systems, authors have wondered (and worried) about how to increase the comments left on their stories. Many of us have done the statistical analysis familiar to fanworks creators: clicks and kudos and comments and what the proportion of each reveals about reader reactions. Likewise, many have offered theories over the years of how to increase commenting or why it is so hard to get a reader just to tell the author they like the story.
This article builds on prior work pointing to community as essential to a robust commenting culture. Simply put, people comment more when they know the author and feel a sense of shared community with them. Data from various sites, along with Tolkien Fanfiction Survey data, supports this conclusion.
For the complete discussion of these data, check out Communities Do Comment: Expanding the 3C's of Commenting with SWG Data.
Instadrabbling Sessions for July, August, and September
Posted by SWG Moderators on . Last updated on .
Anna (IdleLeaves) will generously be continuing to host monthly instadrabbling sessions on our Discord server on the first Saturday of each month! We welcome all creators to join us for an few hours of creating, squeeing, and hanging out with fellow fans on the following dates:
- July 4, 2026 at 6PM/18:00 UTC (find this in my timezone)
- August 1, 2026 at 6PM/18:00 UTC (find this in my timezone)
- September 5, 2026 at 6PM/18:00 UTC (find this in my timezone)
What is instadrabbling? Instadrabbling is a long-standing community activity in the Tolkien fanfiction fandom. A group of friends gets together on chat, someone throws out a prompt or four, and everyone writes a drabble (or whatever comes to mind). We share our creations in the server and admire each other's work. Instadrabbling is low-pressure and casual, and all are encouraged to participate to whatever degree they are comfortable. Instadrabbling responses shared on our server can be about any aspect of Tolkien's legendarium, not just Silmworks.
When we instadrabble, we meet on the #instadrabbling channel on our Discord server. Discord invites can be requested at any time from the moderators. All are welcome to join the Discord, whether you want to instadrabble with us or not!
New Challenge: Scavenger Hunt
Posted by SWG Moderators on . Last updated on .
As a kid, were you ever given a list of clues to solve to find the location of small prizes? Or did you play the types of games where you need to talk to people to track down the objects you need? This month's challenge combines a scavenger hunt with a Matryoshka challenge. Tie on your sneakers, grab your map and canteen, and get ready to search!
During a Matryoshka challenge, creators make a fanwork using multiple prompts that are revealed one by one (like nesting dolls!) The Scavenger Hunt challenge puts a bit of a twist on the traditional Matryoshka format.
You will still create a fanwork using multiple prompts. However, instead of receiving those prompts one by one from the moderators, you will seek and find those prompts from other participants or by following clues to locate them on the SWG website.
In order to receive a stamp for your fanwork, your response must be posted to the archive on or before 15 June 2026. For complete challenge guidelines, see the Challenges page on our website.
Sign-Up to Hand Out Scavenger Hunt Prompts
Posted by SWG Moderators on . Last updated on .
Our May challenge will be an interactive Matryoshka challenge, meaning that challenge participants will provide prompts to each other. How it will work:
- If you want to provide prompts to participants, you can sign up one or all of your fanworks posted to our archive. These will become the clues in the scavenger hunt!
- When participants solve the clue, they will read/view and comment on one of your fanworks (or the specific fanwork you offer, if you choose to offer just one).
- You will reply to their comment with a prompt. You can create your own prompt(s) or the moderators can provide prompts for you to use.
Our hope is that this challenge encourages interaction and collaboration and results in comments for those of you who are offering prompts! A few additional details to keep in mind before signing up:
- The challenge will run May 15 through June 15. You do not need to be available every day to provide prompts, and the moderators will be available to provide backup prompts if you can't. However, if you're planning to spend three of those weeks off-grid in the wilderness, it's probably best to sit this one out.
- If you sign up a single fanwork and it is Adult-rated or if all of your fanworks are Adult-rated, we will mark it as such so that participants who need SFW (safe for work) fanworks can find them.
- You do not need to create a fanwork for the challenge in order to hand out prompts and enjoy the comments on your work!
- If you make your own prompts, prompts should be SFW and open-ended. Prompts should not require creating about a specific character, relationship, group, time period, place, genre, etc.
If you want to provide prompts for the challenge, you can sign up here.
New Challenge: Everyman
Posted by SWG Moderators on . Last updated on .
The Silmarillion is a story about heroes, often larger than life (sometimes literally, given how many characters claim to be the tallest) and the performers of deeds worth the historical record. Yet hovering around the edges of the lives of heroes are ordinary people. They are the companions, the spies, the messengers, the servants, and the soldiers, their actions given the barest glance and their names unknown. Yet as the compendium of their deeds—collected in this month's prompts—show, their impact on the tale is not insubstantial.
This month's challenge brings these unnamed, unknown characters to the foreground. Create a fanwork about an ordinary character in legendarium using one of our collected quotes about the unnamed and undistinguished people of Middle-earth. While you are welcome to write the scene from which the quote derives, this is not the only approach to the prompts, and we welcome all interpretations of the prompts (and some have been left intentionally vague!) You can use all or part of a quote. The only requirement of the challenge is that a background character plays a key role in your work.
You can find the prompts for the Everyman challenge here.
Thank you to Erdariel for this month's stamps!
In order to receive a stamp for your fanwork, your response must be posted to the archive on or before 15 May 2026. For complete challenge guidelines, see the Challenges page on our website.
Cultus Dispatches: Fanworks, AI, and Resistance by Dawn and Grundy
Posted by SWG Moderators on . Last updated on .
Fanworks fandom in 2026 is not a culture defined by boundaries. Generally, fans accept that all manner of fanworks (even if not to their personal liking) have a right to exist. AI-generated fanworks, however, have pushed the limits of even fanworks fans' considerable levels of tolerance.
When Dawn and Grundy were recently tasked with presenting about how the SWG developed its AI policy, they ended up taking a deep dive into the impacts of generative AI within the broader Tolkien fanworks fandom, finding that communities that are generally resistant to boundaries have set up firm limits on how AI can be used in their spaces. Social justice, ethics, and community governance all play roles in how fan communities have responded to generative AI—and how larger fandom institutions have not.
You can read the article "Fandom Draws the Line: Fanworks, AI, and Resistance" here.
Instadrabbling Sessions for April, May, and June
Posted by SWG Moderators on . Last updated on .
Anna (IdleLeaves) will generously be continuing to host monthly instadrabbling sessions on our Discord server on the first Saturday of each month! We welcome all creators to join us for an few hours of creating, squeeing, and hanging out with fellow fans on the following dates:
- April 4, 2026 at 6PM/18:00 UTC (find this in my timezone)
- May 2, 2026 at 6PM/18:00 UTC (find this in my timezone)
- June 6, 2025 at 6PM/18:00 UTC (find this in my timezone)
What is instadrabbling? Instadrabbling is a long-standing community activity in the Tolkien fanfiction fandom. A group of friends gets together on chat, someone throws out a prompt or four, and everyone writes a drabble (or whatever comes to mind). We share our creations in the server and admire each other's work. Instadrabbling is low-pressure and casual, and all are encouraged to participate to whatever degree they are comfortable. Instadrabbling responses shared on our server can be about any aspect of Tolkien's legendarium, not just Silmworks.
When we instadrabble, we meet on the #instadrabbling channel on our Discord server. Discord invites can be requested at any time from the moderators. All are welcome to join the Discord, whether you want to instadrabble with us or not!
Finally, we want to note that monthly instadrabbling has been running for a year now! Many thanks to Anna for hosting this monthly. Your commitment has brought a lot of joy to our server!
New Challenge: Famous Last Words
Posted by SWG Moderators on . Last updated on .
Most people remember best what they heard last, and authors and songwriters have long capitalized on this trick of brain wiring by signing off their stories, plays, poems, and songs with a truly memorable last line. This month, we pay homage to some of history's best and most noteworthy last words by offering a selection of them as prompts for creating a fanwork.
Prompts for this month's challenge are assigned by a moderator. You can request a prompt by commenting on this news item, emailing us, sending us an ask on Tumblr, commenting on our Dreamwidth, or requesting a prompt on the #monthly-challenges channel on our Discord. If you have a preference for a last line from a book, song, play, poem, or person, let us know! If you get stuck and can't do anything with the prompt we lob at you, feel free to ask us to try again.
If you create a challenge fanwork featuring a woman in a leading role, let us know, as we have a special stamp for Women's History Month.
Thank you to ecthelioffd for this month's stamps!
In order to receive a stamp for your fanwork, your response must be posted to the archive on or before 15 April 2026. For complete challenge guidelines, see the Challenges page on our website.
New Challenge: Title Track
Posted by SWG Moderators on . Last updated on .
Enamored as he was with language, the chapters and titles of Tolkien's broad range of works are often small works of art in and of themselves. Some carry the ponderous weight of legend, others evoke complex metaphors and associations, and some dance like poems upon the tongue.
This month's challenge offers prompts based on titles within Tolkien's many and varied works. We've selected 125 titles from books, chapters, essays, poems, and fragments of text to inspire your fanwork. Note that fanworks do not have to be about the work the title belongs to (although they certainly can be). As always, we encourage creative interpretations of our challenges, and you can use the prompts however you want.
Find the Title Track prompts here.
In order to receive a stamp for your fanwork, your response must be posted to the archive on or before 15 March 2026. For complete challenge guidelines, see the Challenges page on our website.
